At 05h30 this morning - a bit later I guess than it usually does in a commercial pilot's daily life looking into an early shift - my alarm clock snatched me out of a deep sleep. That went rather well.. since I had great plans for the day! Intentions: an IFR flight across the French border and back, where I would fly the first leg and a friend of mine the return trip. Since the prevailing winds on our flight planned flight levels were western to northwestern, the plan was to fly a south- resp. northbound track as to both having about the same crosswind conditions (read: fair part of both flying & paying half of the plane rental).A quick check of weather and notams showed me no items that could turn this flight into a no-go. Besides tempo PROB30 SHSN with BKN0500 the weather at our departure & destination airports was very suitable and met the minima for my planned non precision approach.
Arriving in the hangar near sunrise - almost sliding over the apron covered with a layer of glazed frost - we found the plane to be insufficiently fueled for the flight. So after the walkaround & startup, we carefully taxied to the fuel station. And care was needed since even Antwerp Ground warned us for "very slippery conditions on the movement area".
About 45' later with flight plans filed & confirmed, clearance copied, departure briefed, all items up to the "before takeoff checklist" completed, I was gently steering the DA42 to the Bravo 2 holding point at the 29'er end of the runway. With a Piper Archer on long final and us holding short I had more than time enough to skip through the before takeoff checklist, controlling both engines' ECU's, the controls, the electric elevator trim, the seatbelts still fastened & canopies closed. Cleared for takeoff I taxied the plane to the very beginning of the RWY (cherishing every extra meter of concrete available ;-))... pressure on the brakes, load 100%... releasing brakes... unleashing the beast... to be airborne a few seconds later. How grrrrreat! NIK2C departure and recleared for a direct to CIV VOR (thank you Brussels... any cost-conscious pilot liiiiikes shortcuts ;-)).
The same "hospitalité" on Lille Info with a "Daairect LimaLima and contact mie forrr zze dezzent". FL060, IAF to be entered @ 2000 feet... so that would require me to put the top of descent at about (3 * 4) NM = 12 DME [flying a cruise descent @ 145 kts with the DA42 I use to add another 2 NM]... so... at 14 DME. That's exactly where we received the clearance for our descent after asking so.
The kind question if we'd have preferred radar vectors for the ILS on RWY 26 however was responded with a "negative" from my side since I had put a "full procedure locator ILS RWY 26" with racetrack entry on my personal TO DO list. We were asked which was the latest ATIS we had received since that one warned for patches of ice on the runway in the touchdown zone. We had indeed received this ATIS and already discussed during the approach briefing to land the plane very smoothly, not applying brakes in the first RWY segment (an option since RWY 26 at Lille Lesquin is way long enough for a Twinstar to come to a stop without braking...) and perform a go around in case of any slip-behaviour at touchdown. However, conditions were way better than in Antwerp and I safely put us on the ground, slightly ahead of the planned landing time [at RyR they would play the Jihaaaa-tune but we just kept it silent ;-)].
After a taxiback during which airport services deiced the suspected part of runway, I was cleared for my request to perform another 2 lefthand circuit VFR approaches... as to obtain my 3 landings in this marvelous plane and be able to carry passengers if there may be some knocking on my door the next 3 months ;-). During the return leg I offered my services as pilot monitoring... but next to having an eye on the instruments and a couple of ears against the headset, I found some time to take pictures of Winter Wonderland below us... to be shared with you off course, dear Blog-visitors!
ps: if some of you would wonder how things are going concerning my career as a commercial pilot... well... stiiiiillllll looking for thé job while doing a job ;-). The fact that I am not the only one looking around and sending loads of applications is just a poor solace :-(.
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